As mobile terminals develop, more applications run on the mobile terminal. When a user of a terminal needs an application, the user will download the application from a mobile application store, such as Google Play, App Store, or another application store (for example, a third-party application store), or may ask a buddy to transfer the required application to the user by means of application sharing between terminals.
However, in the prior art, when application sharing is performed between terminals, a sending end (a sending end of an application) sends only an installation package of the application to a receiving end (a receiving end of the application). After receiving the installation package of the application, the receiving end still needs to download, from an application server, data required for the application to run, which is inconvenient.